


Five hundred hours ‘til I am home

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Series: Five hundred hours [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coda, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, canon-typical levels of romantic undertones but can be read as platonic, h50 episode 10.21, steve goes on a trip around the world and everyone knows where it will end, this namedrops enough former main cast and recurring characters you could play character bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23404816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: Look who I ran into!Steve writes a day after he reports on his arrival in Cape Town, Africa. There’s an attached picture that shows Harry Langford in his customary impeccable suit but jacketless, lounging at a bar and smiling at the camera casually, like he wasn’t posing at all and is just naturally that photogenic. He might be. Danny feels a spike of jealousy.He tries to squash it, and when that doesn’t work, he takes a picture of Eddie sprawled out on the beach next to his chair and sends that back with the caption,My date is way more handsome.Or: Steve leaves (temporarily). Danny stays (permanently). There’s some pining involved.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett & Danny "Danno" Williams, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Series: Five hundred hours [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683592
Comments: 70
Kudos: 356





	Five hundred hours ‘til I am home

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文-普通话 國語 available: [【翻译】【McDanno】Five hundred hours ‘til I am home 五百小时至我归家](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23493181) by [halfbakedcookies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfbakedcookies/pseuds/halfbakedcookies)



> You might remember that in the distant past (yesterday, it was literally yesterday) I posted a fic that I never meant to write. This is the thrilling sequel: a sequel I never meant to write (but spent all day working on anyway)! (Or: I keep thinking about Steve leaving and Steve being gone and most of all Steve coming back, and that’s why this is a series now.)
> 
> This can easily be read on its own – all you need to know is that Steve is taking the “break” he was talking about in 10.21. For future reference, this was written before 10.22 aired, so it will likely soon be canon divergent, but is not such as of right now. 
> 
> The title was taken from the lyrics of Muse’s _Something Human_.

Danny drops Steve off at the airport, which Steve has chosen to brave armed with nothing but a single travel backpack and his wallet. “You sure about this?” Danny asks, instead of spiraling out. He still spirals a little (outwardly it doesn’t look like Steve packed for a cold climate so he’s probably headed somewhere warm but Danny needs to bite his tongue about that thought because if he gives voice to it Steve might very well buy a ticket to Antarctica out of pure spite and then he’ll freeze his ass off and Danny will never see him again), but he saves most of it for later.

“I’m sure enough,” Steve says, shouldering his pack. “Thanks for the ride.”

They hug, they let go, and they go their separate ways. Getting to drive the Camaro without anyone trying to steal the keys has never been this depressing.

*

Danny arrives home from the airport and immediately wants to text Steve. He can’t text Steve. He promised he’d let Steve make first contact, once he’s decided where he wants to go and arrived at whatever that destination is. That’s good, probably – Steve needs this break, needs the time away to be all on his lonesome and reflect, and that’s very human of him. The casual “I’ll figure it out when I get there” of the whole situation is the part that bothers Danny, because it means he has no clue how long he’ll have to wait for the first sign of life. Could be Steve’s boarding a plane to Kauai almost right this very second, or it could turn out he feels like travelling halfway across the globe and Danny could be on pins and needles for potentially days.

Danny heads into the kitchen. He comes back to the living room, nothing in his hands, and goes straight back to the kitchen because that’s stupid. He backtracks to the living room again when he realizes he’s not really hungry or thirsty and it’s even stupider to think it’s stupid not to eat when he doesn’t want to eat in the first place.

“You okay?” Junior asks, the third time Danny emerges from the kitchen empty-handed. It scares the living daylights out of Danny, who had somehow managed to block out that Junior’s been sitting at the dinner table with his laptop all this time. Junior could have rightfully chosen to laugh at Danny – even Tani wasn’t this bad when Junior was called back into service, and there’s a reasonably okay chance Steve is not even doing anything dangerous – but instead he just sounds sweet and a little worried. 

“Yeah,” Danny says, pulling out a chair, sitting down across from Junior, and immediately fighting the urge to get up and start pacing again.

Junior closes his laptop. “Hey, wanna watch a movie?”

Danny thanks Steve, wherever he is, for having an excellent choice in housemates.

*

Steve texts him from Barcelona after twenty-six hours. Danny has no clue why Barcelona, of all the places in the world. Maybe Steve has decided that finding himself means brushing up on his Spanish or maybe he just likes Gaudí, but either way it means Danny’s heart can stop jumping around his chest like a bouncy ball every time his phone chimes, only to deflate like a punctured balloon when it’s yet another false alarm.

He wants to call. A few times he almost does, but he backs away from the idea, each and every single time. This is about Steve and what Steve wants. Steve understands how to use a phone perfectly fine, so Danny will just have to wait for him, and he can do totally do that. There are worse fates in life.

It takes him a while to think of one, but he’s pretty sure they exist.

*

He receives sporadic updates – Steve is in Athens, Steve is in Ankara, Steve is suddenly back in Europe and taking a selfie with the Mona Lisa and a million photobombing tourists – and it’s not a lot, but it’s enough to keep him sane. He doesn’t know how people used to cope with loved ones travelling in a time before the invention of the mobile phone.

_Look who I ran into!_ Steve writes a day after he reports on his arrival in Cape Town, Africa. There’s an attached picture that shows Harry Langford in his customary impeccable suit but jacketless, lounging at a bar and smiling at the camera casually, like he wasn’t posing at all and is just naturally that photogenic. He might be. Danny feels a spike of jealousy.

He tries to squash it, and when that doesn’t work, he takes a picture of Eddie sprawled out on the beach next to his chair and sends that back with the caption, _My date is more handsome._

_You’re right, you win,_ Steve sends back, followed by a rare three quarter profile of Harry unattractively mid-blink, one eye closed and one eye half-open. Danny feels reassured in a way that runs deep into his soul.

*

Three days later, he gets the regular monthly life update email that he always exchanges with Max, but this time Max keeps rambling on about Steve’s impending visit. Danny takes a screenshot and sends it to Steve.

_Caught me,_ Steve says. _Thought I might as well say hi now that I’m in the area. Have a flight to Madagascar booked for tomorrow._

*

Steve sends a bunch of pictures of Max, Sabrina, Tunde and their dog, who look exactly like the happy little family Max always describes them to be in his drily worded emails. Danny’s heart aches a little, but in a good way.

*

_Did you know Sarah got second place in her school district’s spelling bee contest?_ is the text that clues Danny in that Steve has probably left Madagascar. That’s confirmed when Steve immediately follows it up with a second message, reading, _We’re not even at Chin and Abby’s yet and Chin has already told me the story twice. Gonna tell him about Charlie’s first place in the science fair three times._

Danny tries his hardest not to read anything into the fact that Steve is abruptly back in the US, and in San Diego no less, which is about as close as you can get to Hawaii without dropping in the Pacific. _Don’t forget Grace is volunteering to campaign for her political candidate of choice while also going to college full time and holding down a part-time job,_ he sends back. Bragging about his kids is the most familiar thing in the world.

Steve’s reply comes in two hours later and is just, _Who do you think I am? Mentioned her GPA four times and will smuggle in a subtle segue for a fifth over dinner._

*

Calling Steve may be an unspoken taboo, but there’s nothing that says Danny can’t just so happen to decide to catch up with his old friend Chin Ho Kelly. Chin sounds perfectly normal when he picks up, like he doesn’t suspect Danny of having ulterior motives at all. They chat about everyday stuff for a little and Danny gets to hear the full, dad-narrated version of Sarah’s second place in the spelling bee.

When their call is thirty minutes in and probably about to come to an end, Chin suddenly says, “He really misses you.” It would be out of the blue if it weren’t so evident that this is what Danny has been trying to fish for without fishing for it, but it is, so Danny doesn’t insult Chin’s intelligence by denying it.

He does want to ask how Chin became privy to this information, but Chin is not someone whose sources you question. If he says it, that means it’s true. “Say hi for me,” Danny requests instead, feeling just a smidgen pathetic and more than a smidgen lonely.

He feels less so when his phone dings two minutes after he says his goodbyes. _Hi back,_ Steve’s text reads.

*

It’s not a massive surprise when Steve’s next stop is Mary and Joan’s apartment in Los Angeles. It’s a little less obvious why he’s only there for a day and then he mentions arriving in Denver, but the mystery gets cleared up when Danny receives a call from Kono late in the evening on the same day, which would be the middle of the night in Colorado. In typical Kono-when-she’s-been-hanging-out-with-Steve style, she doesn’t approach the topic delicately. “I heard from Chin that he tortured you for half an hour while you tried not to ask about Steve, so I just want to let you know upfront that I dropped your man off at his hotel and am now headed back to mine.”

“You’re a menace,” Danny tells her, feeling immensely grateful in a way that’s hard to put into words. He rarely misses Kono more than when she’s being kind but putting on a big mouth. “What the hell are you doing in Denver?”

“Same old,” Kono says, and leaves it at that, which might be for the best. Danny knows she’s still hopping from city to city in her crusade against sex trafficking and he also knows he couldn’t do what she does and stay even remotely sane. She deserves a break from thinking about her job. She’s likely just coming of a night of drinking with Steve, judging by the carefree mood she seems to be in. “He keeps talking about you, you know,” she says, like she’s reading his mind from the back of a cab in a city he’s never been to. That’s probably not true – it’s probably just that she knows him that well. “I think I’ve heard more about what’s been going on in your life than his own.”

“He’s just trying to avoid talking about himself,” Danny says, which is, ironically, a bid to avoid talking about himself or how he feels hearing about Steve’s misadventures. It’s more to save him from the embarrassment of sounding giddy than anything.

*

Danny finally breaks and calls Steve directly the moment the latest picture comes in. “What the fuck,” he says, when Steve picks up. “What the actual fuck.”

Steve’s laughter rings as clear over the line as if he were right next to Danny, instead of roughly 4.886 miles away, according to Google. Danny has checked in the past, repeatedly. He’s known that number by heart ever since he moved. “Hey,” Steve says, “I don’t need a recommendation for a place to stay anymore. I think your mom has adopted me.”

Danny hangs up on Steve just so his phone is free and he can pull up the picture his mother sent him exactly one minute ago. It’s a selfie, a typically boomer-bad one taken from a far too low angle, but it shows Danny’s mom in her favorite corner on her couch at home in Jersey, beaming and pulling Steve close, who is sitting next to her and grinning widely and wearing an actual sweater and throwing up a shaka sign like he’s taunting Danny specifically. He probably is.

The picture is pushed away by a different snapshot of Steve’s obnoxious face when the phone starts buzzing and announces _incoming call: Steve_. Danny answers. “What the fuck,” he repeats, and Steve starts laughing again, and Danny is pretty sure he hears his dad in the background, faintly, going, “Clara, do you know where my glasses are?” and oh, oh dear God. Steve is really in Jersey.

*

What follows is vindication as much as it’s torture. Danny receives series of pictures from his mom, Bridget and Stella, but most of all from Steve, who appears to take an unholy delight in checking off all the major New Jersey landmarks and calling Danny every night to share his thoughts on them, which are, of course, all terrible. Lucy the Elephant: “Not elephant-y enough.” Hot Dog Johnny’s: “Would be better if they served loco moco.” High Point State Park: “I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying 1,803ft would barely be considered a hill in Hawaii. Are you _sure_ this is the highest point around here?” (The only thing that gets spared the merciless ribbing is the USS New Jersey, which he calls “really cool” and “almost makes the entire existence of New Jersey worth it, if you ask me”. Danny, he would like it to be noted, most certainly did not ask.)

The thing that truly gets to Danny, though, the bit that really drives him mad in small increments, has nothing to do with Steve’s intentional attempts to rile him up. It’s the little mundane moments in between. It’s stuff like the image of Steve flanked by Bridget’s kids at the diner a block from Danny’s parents’ house that is nothing special but where Danny has a lot of fond memories. It’s Steve sending Danny the view from Danny’s own old bedroom, or Steve taking a selfie at the hardware store with Danny’s dad unaware in the background, because apparently Eddie Williams thinks Steve is the kind of man who could provide some valuable insight into which cordless drill to buy. It’s true, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less baffling a scenario to exist in reality.

*

Danny’s phone dings and the doorbell rings at nearly the same time. He’s on his way there while he opens Steve’s latest message, and he’s just hit reply to send back something useless in response to Steve’s equally useless _Yo_ , when he opens the door and looks up.

“Yo,” Steve says, again, but out loud and in fully colorized live 3D this time.

“Jesus Christ,” Danny tells him, bluntly, squeezing his phone so hard it creaks. Doesn’t matter; it’s looking like he might not need it anymore for the foreseeable future. “Don’t scare a guy like that.”

Steve huffs a laugh. He drops his one-shouldered backpack, which lands with a dull thud on the floor, and then he’s taken the last step and he’s inside and over the threshold and on Danny, who doesn’t have to move one bit. Steve does exactly what he said he would and comes to Danny and folds around him like well-taped gift wrapping paper, like he’s attached now and if anyone wants him to ever let go again they’ll probably have to tear into him irreversibly. Danny lets his phone clatter to the floor – fuck that thing anyway – and grabs two handfuls of the back of Steve’s shirt.

It’s pretty safe to say Steve’s not in Jersey anymore. “You good?” Danny asks, muffled by Steve’s shoulder. Steve smells like sweat and airplane and a hastily thrown-on layer of deodorant, and his body is warm and solid and real. “You okay?”

“’m Home,” Steve says, even less intelligible because he’s so effectively curled around Danny that his face is buried in Danny’s neck despite their usual height difference. That’s okay – sometimes the answer is not found in the words, but in getting the life squeezed out of you.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Comments are awesome and you’re pretty awesome too, so be kind and careful with yourself. ❤
> 
> I’m on Tumblr as [itwoodbeprefect](https://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com), or with my exclusively H50 (and mostly McDanno) sideblog as [five-wow](https://five-wow.tumblr.com).


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